NBA legend and now Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady was finally inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday night, a moment that McGrady has been looking forward to his entire life.

T-Mac finished his career with averages of 19.6 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.4 assists a game, spanning across 15 seasons and 6 different teams. The one thing McGrady never was able to achieve however was winning an NBA championship, something that he’ll never be able to change. Tracy has learned to deal with the fact he doesn’t own a championship ring, as evidenced by the comments he made when he first learned he was going to be making the Hall of Fame:

“You have to have a great team and some luck to get a ring, right? Unfortunately, I wasn’t blessed with that. But I go back at them with this: Anybody can win a championship. Everybody can’t get in the Hall of Fame.”

When McGrady originally said this, Cleveland Cavaliers shooting guard J.R. Smith had an issue with it for some reason, and sent out this tweet:

NBA fans were on the fence regarding Smith’s comments, half agreeing and half disagreeing with J.R.’s point of view.

At the Hall of Fame ceremony, however, Tracy McGrady stood by his comments, not holding back with his choice of words:

As you can tell, T-Mac definitely feels strongly about the issue, and he has a point. Many bench-warmers and backup players have championship rings that they didn’t do much on the court to earn, but you can’t name one player who is in the Hall of Fame who doesn’t deserve to be there.

About the author

Brad Stevenson is Fadeaway World's Chief Content Editor. Brad is 19 years old and is currently studying Information Technology at Monash University in Australia. Joining the Fadeaway World team early on in 2016, Brad has covered every NBA topic imaginable in his two years with Fadeaway World. He's also a rabid Laker fan and isn't afraid to share his opinions when it comes to the Purple and Gold. You can follow Brad on Twitter @BradStevensonFW.